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African Dating Scams

The world is changing at unimaginable pace and things that seemed to be awkward or even impossible have already become an integral part of our life. It can take ages to enumerate everything that’s different in the 21st century but we are going to focus first of all on meeting people on Internet and online dating. Our parents could never imagine anything like this, and yet now we meet people online more often than in the street. Nowadays people are more open for communication; most of the countries have opened their doors as well so people rush into new adventures and end up meeting completely new people. Intermarriages are no longer exotic – curiosity makes people sign up at dating sites and communicate with strangers online.

On one hand online dating gives us lots of opportunities:

We can meet people from absolutely any country;

We can learn about the culture of any country straight from the source;

We can expand our horizons immensely;

We can travel anywhere we like and explore the country with the help of a local guy/girl;

On the other hand there are some pitfalls of online dating that are hard to turn a blind eye to. What do you think it is? Dating scams of course. Unfortunately Internet abounds in online dating scams and there’s nothing to de done in order to eradicate this phenomenon completely. As long as there are people who can be double crossed, there will always be Internet con artists. The truth is that anyone can be targeted. Don’t think that scamming techniques are applied only against rich or stupid individuals – anyone who’s looking for love online can be a victim of a skillful scammer. Usually people who are in search of a soul mate are more vulnerable than others and eventually it leads to their wallet being emptied by conscienceless scammers. It is hard to avoid these dishonest individuals because they use love as a tool to strip you of your assets. Nevertheless there are certain tips on how to spot a scammer and protect yourself from being double crossed.

In order to avoid falling prey to an Internet dating scam you need to keep your head cool however strong you think your feelings are towards the person you’re communicating with. If you are new to online dating we suggest you a list of recommendations or tips on how to spot internet scammers and make them show their true colours.

Pay attention to email discrepancies.

Due to the fact that people easily fall prey to online scammers they never try to hide their true intentions thoroughly. Usually they have some kind of story, which they keep on telling to everybody they come across the dating site. But this story is not universal, so each of their targets hears one of its interpretations. It often happens that they confuse their targets and consequently they confuse their stories. Yesterday she’s been a lonely teacher at a college, while today she’s a lonely PR-manager. Such discrepancies should immediately alarm you because they usually mean that you’re being tricked. Sometimes your interlocutor would repeat something that he has already told you, and that’s not because he has amnesia.

Compare the tone of several letters

Usually Internet scammers work in pairs or even groups. Sometimes the whole marriage agency would be responsible for scams. What does it mean? It means that every time you communicate with your supposed soul mate, you may communicate with some other person. It is not that obvious in live chats, because in such circumstances people are not that accurate, they have to respond at once and they don’t have time to polish their thoughts. But if you compare several emails you would immediately find some distinct features in each of them. Of course if they were written by different people. The way we express ourselves always gives us away and for people who can read between the lines it is always obvious what was the true intention of his/her interlocutor. Tone is not the only thing you should pay your attention at: the letters may change in style, language or even grammar.

Stay alarmed if your communication is too vague

You won’t have a normal conversation with a person who has ulterior motives. The truth is that they have dozens of interlocutors and they simply can’t keep track of everything that’s been written or said. That’s why instead of answering your direct questions they prefer to be quite vague and answer in a very philosophical way. Here’s another thing that should warn you – they ask millions of questions but never comment on your answers or prefer to use some general phrases. That’s another technique used to keep their victims “on board” and continue communication.

Don’t believe their sob stories

Yep, our world is a cruel place indeed. But if you take a tour to an online dating site, you would suddenly discover that all the unhappiest people hang out there. Every third person you meet there has a sob story about abusive parents/husband, life full of misery and misfortunes and so on. We don’t say that all these people are liers but it can’t be that bad in here, right? But even if all these sob stories are true why would anybody tell them to a complete stranger they met online and talked to him/her for the first time? Such personal information is never reveled in front of strangers, so why all these people are so eager to share their life tragedies right off the bat?

Never send money to you online sweeties

If there’s been a request for money you should probably check your sweetheart. Let’s not generalize, but knowing the tendency of scammers to pump dollars out of their victims at this point you should be alarmed. You would hear one more tragic story about some health problems that require financial help, about an abusive ex who rushed into her flat and took away all precious things, about robbers or any other malefactors. No one is proof against any of these cases, and if you are willing to help just be reasonable and take all the needed precautions in order to protect yourself from scammers. You don’t all your money being stripped away for nothing!